Hunt for the Light
by TaleForge
Summary: This is my NaNoWriMo project. An AU, non-canonical story that takes the elements of KH to tell an original story.
1. Chapter 1

**One**

 _The brighter the light..._

Athena woke the same way she'd found herself waking up for the past few weeks, on and off. Slowly, heavily, like she was pulling herself out of a thick mire. The last few moments of a dream hung on her mind, at once familiar and seemingly vital, even as it slipped through her mind as dreams often do. She pulled herself up to a seated position, exhaling as she ran a hand through her short brown hair and tried to blink away the last bit of sleep. Outside her window, the sun had just started to make the transition from dawn to morning. _Oh, right,_ she thought to herself, _today's the day._

She put aside her dreams and set to the task of getting out of her pajamas. She thought for a moment about whether or not today was a day that demanded some kind of formal dress. Then, realizing her definition of "formal" was already pretty casual, she just decided to settle for jeans and her old hand me down T-shirt her dad got when he saw the Chocobo Knights in concert. She was just in the middle of tying up her sneakers when she heard a buzzing on her night-stand, followed by a bouncy, jangly song. Athena awkwardly made her way to the stand as she slipped on her other shoe, reaching for the phone and pressing the "answer" button. "'Lo?" she muttered into the receiver.

"Good morning, Athena!" the voice on the other end said, over the light but insistent sounds of wind and the constant thud of footsteps against pavement. "I didn't wake you up, did I?"

"No, it's fine," she replied, bending back to adjust her shoe on her foot. "I've been up myself for a bit, now."

"Good," the voice said, and was about to say something else, when a grunt and the sound of shoes scuffing on concrete interrupted her. Another rush of wind, the sound of people talking getting louder and softer as the speaker blew past them. "Hey, I'm on my way over, right now. Is that all right, or should I give you some time?"

"No, no, I think we're good." Athena began putting her wallet and house keys into her pocket. "How long until you get here? Like, a few minutes, or..." A sudden, loud clatter and thunk behind her nearly made her jump out of her skin. She whipped around to see the source.

A young lady was clinging to her window, feet on the sill, one hand holding herself up on the top edge while the other kept her cell phone pressed to her face. Artemis recognized the long red hair, the pastel shirt maybe two or three sizes too big for her, the garishly bright sweater tied around her waist by the sleeves, the track shorts and tennis shoes, and of course her face, bright and smiling. The girl hung up her phone and gave Athena a sardonic grin. "Hey, open up," she shouted, "my arm's getting tired."

Athena sighed and shook her head, hanging up the phone and stuffing it into her pocket. "I've got a door, you know." She walked over and put her hand on the window, but didn't lift just yet. "I dunno, Artemis. Maybe you should just hang out for a bit."

Artemis laughed, with a hint of unease. "No, seriously." She spared a glance down at the street, a story or so down. "I don't wanna fall; please open the window."

"Oh, fine." Athena pushed the window up and took a step aside. "Just be careful around the night-light!" She lurched forward to catch the little electric, star-shaped night light she'd put on the window-sill, that Artemis's awkward climbing knocked over. Athena sighed heavily as she tried to step aside to give her friend room. "Honestly, Art, this thing's only been here since we were kids; you think you'd know how to avoid it at this point."

"Sorry." Artemis tucked her phone into her pocket and took a look around the room. Athena wasn't disorganized so much as she had a lot of stuff; Artemis's eyes were drawn to the collection of stuffed Tonberries her friend had gotten at a yard sale for reasons neither of them could really be sure of. "So," Artemis offered, after seeing that the little night-light was back in its rightful spot again, "you ready for today?

"I guess?" Athena closed the window and turned to lean against the wall. "It's not like there's a whole lot to get ready for, right? It's just a silly party."

"Oh, don't say that, Athena!" Artemis swept forward and put an arm around Athena's shoulder, turning her towards the window and pointing towards a group of kids walking down the street, chatting and laughing. "It's not just a silly party. It's Longday! The longest day of the year!"

Athena chuckled sarcastically. "That just means we're going to be outside longer."

"Exactly!" Artemis spun them both around, with enough force to cause Athena's arm to upset the night-light on the window again. "More time to spend with friends, and play games, and do all sorts of other cool stuff. It's probably my favorite holiday, ever."

Athena spared Artemis a glance as she set about righting her light again from within her friend's grip. "That's the same thing you say about Light Day, and Wish Giving."

Artemis seemed just a bit thrown off by that statement, but she recovered quickly enough. "Well, this time I mean it," she declared with the sort of sincerity Athena knew from experience was genuine, if not exactly guaranteed to be contradicted sometime down the line. Artemis released her friend and started making her way to the door. "Now, come on. You and me, we've got a party to get to."

Athena could only shake her head and smirk. All the times this particular situation played out, it never seemed to get old, and it always seemed to work. Artemis was always talking Athena into seeing the fun in things; between the two of them, they had more stories of misadventure and trouble than Athena would ever have had the patience to stomach alone. When it was Artemis suggesting it, though... "Right behind you," she said, grabbing up her little red book from the dresser as she followed Artemis to the stairs and out the front door.

"So..." Artemis began, and then paused. Athena could only guess she was trying to find a good segue and, having failed to do so, decided to just go ahead and say what she was going to say without one. "...I've been having... like, really weird dreams lately."

"Oh, you too?" Athena opened her book, flipping past handwritten pages until she found the last one she'd written anything in. "I've been having those, too. Just last night, even."

"Really?"

"Yeah... oh..." Athena reached for her pocket with a rueful grimace. She'd forgotten something to write with, again. She huffed and snapped the book shut. "So, what have you been dreaming, then?"

"Oh. Well..." Artemis slowed down for a second, scratching at her chin absently with one finger and looking up at nothing. "Umm... You know, I don't remember anymore. That's strange; it was so vivid when I woke up today."

Athena nodded. "That tends to happen, with dreams. You can't really remember them unless you really try."

Artemis seemed momentarily crestfallen, to a degree that the situation didn't wholly warrant. "Man," she muttered, "and it was such a good dream, too. I'm pretty sure it was, anyway. I remember it being kind of scary and confusing at first... oh!" She looked to Athena. "You said you were having dreams, too, right? So what were yours?"

"I don't remember, either."

"Oh."

They took the next dozen and a half steps in silence, as they both came to the realization that their conversation was going nowhere. Athena finally broke the silence with a crooked grin. "Good talk," she said, casually.

Artemis chuckled, then pointed to the hill where the old lighthouse was situated. "Hey, look. You can see they're already setting stuff up." She picked up her pace to a brisk, long stride. "Come on, let's see what's in all the stalls before they become crowded with people."

"Hey," Athena replied, as she followed behind, "don't you start running, on me. You know I can't keep up with you when you get all excited."


	2. Chapter 2

**Two**

There were no houses on the hill leading up to Lighthouse Point. Local legend say it was out of reverence to the old lighthouse, a structure that some people honestly believe predates even the oldest house of the nearby town by a great many years. Some people said that one only approached the lighthouse when one was lost, and that spending too long in its presence would result in becoming far too keenly aware of one's course in life, learning all the times they would fail and even, in some cases, the exact time and place they would die. Athena didn't take these stories too seriously; after all, some people also said that certain species of fish could control the weather if you gave them peanut butter sandwiches.

For the festival on Longday, it was customary for people to take advantage of the free space on the hill as well as possible. Stalls sprang up by the old dirt road, perpendicular to the slope and facing downhill, allowing anyone approaching the lighthouse to see all the various snacks, souvenirs and curio that the enterprising decided to sell. Off to the sides, kids and adults were playing. Over on one patch, a couple of elementary school kids were playing tag. On another, a few slightly older boys had broken out the Struggle bats and were diligently attempting to smack each other upside the heads with the cushy blue foam toys. Somewhere in the growing mass of people, somebody was playing a guitar. That somebody was probably Nils, the neighborhood "kid who is really good at guitar but otherwise isn't all that interesting."

Artemis scanned the faces wandering around, finally settling on one she recognized, and began animatedly waving. "Hey, Orion!" she shouted, "Orion, over here!"

A bleached blonde head stopped moving, turned around, and its owner began to wave back. Orion was no stranger to the outdoors, with his mostly healthy tan and his summer clothes that had seen no shortage of adventures on the beach and in the woods. "Hey, Artemis!" he shouted back, before jogging over to a more conversation friendly distance. "You're just in time; we're just about done with the preparations."

"They've been working you hard?" Athena asked.

"Like you wouldn't believe," Orion replied, with a rueful chuckle. "Mr. Highwind is making me earn every Munny he's giving."

"Well, good." Artemis nodded in sagacious approval. "A little hard work never hurt anybody. It'll help toughen you up."

Orion sighed. "At least they'll let me loose soon, so I can enjoy the festival, too. Actually that reminds me, Artemis. Didn't you say you'd be signing up for the committee, too?"

Artemis's eyes had long since started to wander, lighting up when they passed over a stall a ways up the hill. "Hey, is that Sea-Salt Ice Cream? Oh, man, I didn't think they'd have that again, this year. Come on, guys!" Before Athena or Orion could respond, Artemis was off at a dash and about a stride and a half from her destination.

Athena took a step beside Orion and leaned in conspiratorially. "Something tells me she might have forgot to sign up."

"Yeah..." There was a demi-tone in Orion's voice, hidden behind the expected resignation, of some mixture of disappointment and distraction as he watched Artemis go.

Athena could only roll her eyes. "Come on, champ." She gave him an affectionate little punch to the arm as she started to walk uphill. "Let's go get her before she goes on a sugar rush, like she did last time."

"R-right..." Orion had to fight back the inevitable memories that statement conjured up of tire swings and ill conceived bets.

Up the hill, Artemis had already managed to cajole the shopkeep into opening his stall early enough for her to get her hands on the prize, a bright blue popsicle that smelled faintly of the ocean and sugar. The look on her face as she turned to her friends and began to eat it was the textbook definition of "victorious." Athena shook her head, saying "So, it's that good, huh?" Artemis nodded, emphatically, to which Athena responded "You know, I still don't get what you like about that stuff. Salty and sweet don't go together."

"Stuffing your face already, I see," called a voice suddenly from down the hill.

A change came over Artemis, immediate and total, as those patronizing, vaguely posh sounding words entered her ear. Her muscles tensed. Her eyes snapped open in a mixture of anger and disbelief. Her teeth snapped over her ice cream like a mother shielding her baby from an approaching bear. Which was good, because with it safely out of the way, she was free to fix the bottom of the hill with a glare that surely would have melted it and any other ice cream that happened to be in the immediate vicinity.

Well, that was fast, Athena thought as she turned around and readied herself for preventing the inevitable shouting match. Seems like Leblanc's actively seeking her out, these days.

There was something about Leblanc, or at least the way Leblanc acted nowadays, that struck entirely the wrong chord with Artemis. Maybe it was the unessecarily tight clothes, the heart motifs, and the general swagger of "boys want this, but they can't get this." Maybe it was the fact that, at some point during middle school, she had decided to play up her accent and mannerisms and suddenly become so much more sophisticated than everyone else. Or maybe it was because she walked around everywhere with her two friends hanging a step behind her like she was some stereotypical teen movie mean girl and everyone else but her seemed to realize that. Athena remembered a time, way back when, when Leblanc and Artemis were friends. It was a bit before she personally knew Artemis, so she had no idea what caused the eventual falling out, but once it did, it did so catastrophically. Artemis was still not allowed at that boy's house after that incident with the pinata.

Athena folded her arms and sighed. "Morning, you guys. Happy Longday."

The raven haired girl in the back waved a hoodie sleeve that presumably had a hand somewhere in it. "You, too." Lulu was probably Athena's greatest ally in keeping things from getting pinata-inclined. She never seemed to acknowledge the politics going on, much less take a side. In fact, she wasn't so much anybody's friend so much as she just sort of hung out with them. She was by no means a yes-man; rather, she simply wasn't invested enough in the situation to really gravitate to anything other than the path of least resistance. Athena could admire that sort of lazy rationality.

Leblanc shrugged with theatrical flair, shaking her head like she were trying to converse with peasants. "Athena, Athena, Athena... I see you're still hanging out with that girl back there. Don't you know she's bad news?"

Artemis's teeth dug a half a millimeter into her ice cream as she tried to hold her tongue.

"Yup," Athena refused to give the situation anything more than mild indifference. "That's entirely why I'm hanging out with her."

"That's a pity..." Leblanc recognized, as smart bullies often do, that she wasn't going to get past such an attitude without some sort of effort, and so she decided to move on over to someone she knew she could rattle. Unfortunately for him, Orion happened to be within easy striking distance. "I was hoping to invite a few more people to this party I'm having." She ran a finger down Orion's arm and gave him a look like a cat gives a cornered bird. "I'd _love_ for you to come, if you've got the time."

Orion could only stammer, caught in between maybe five or six different responses and completely unable to determine which, if any, would

Another millimeter in. A sound came out of the back of Artemis's throat not dissimilar to an angry terrirer.

"Well, that's too bad," Athena decided to jump to Orion's rescue. "But hey, it's a big hill. I'm sure there's people all over the place who'd flip to go to a genuine Leblanc party."

Leblanc didn't move from her position threatening Orion; instead she just slid her gaze over ever so slightly. "I'm sensing a hint of negativity from you."

"Yup. That's me. I'm just a negative person. Now, why don't..." a sound came to Athena's ear. The sound of a set of teeth breaking through an ice cream bar. "...oh, great..."

Poor Orion happened to be in the way; Artemis shouldered past him with surprising force, shouting over a mouthful of ice cream and waving the rest direcly in Leblanc's face. "So, why don't you just go jump off a cliff or something and let all the normal people enjoy their holiday, you... you..."

Leblanc took a step back, carefully and meticulously wiping off her face. "I'd be careful, if I were you," she warned. "You almost stained a two hundred Munny designer shirt. Not that I'm surprised; you always were a complete klutz."

"Klutz? _Klutz?!"_ In the long and storied history of these two, "klutz" was actually a relatively harmless name, but coming out of the mouth it was coming out of, it might as well have been an accusation of genocide. "Why, you little... I'm gonna...!"

"...do nothing at all!" Athena pushed herself in between the two of them, glaring back at Artemis. "We're all going to go off to separate corners, and we're going to have a nice, happy Long..."

Leblanc wouldn't let her miniature victory, however, go incomplete. "I propose we have ourselves a little contest, to settle our problems once and for all."

"You're on!" Artemis shouted, over Athena's shoulder.

Athena groaned. Artemis always fell for this. _Always._ And it never settled anything once and for all, like Leblanc was wont to claim. "All right, fine," Athena said. "Contest. Good. What do you have in mind?"

From the back, the pink-haired girl with the stare like diamonds laced with even harder diamonds finally spoke up. "I can go back home. Get about six or seven Struggle bats."

The group, on both sides, took a moment to stare at the pink-haired girl. Lulu was the first to pipe up. "Lightning," she said, "that's your answer to _everything."_

Orion added. "I'm still bruised up from the last time you wanted to have a Struggle match."

Lightning folded her arms and huffed. "Well, that's not _my_ fault, now is it? You should have blocked better."

Athena shook her head. "Nobody's beating each other with foam bats, all right? We'll find something else. Orion, do you know if there's anything planned, today?"

Orion thought for a moment. "Well... Mr. Highwind had a scavenger hunt planned. There are lists set up over on the stall three up from here."

Athena couldn't help a bit of a smirk; it was hardly by accident that Orion suggested an event Artemis was really good at. "Okay. Perfect. We'll do three against three. If we win, you guys leave us alone."

"And if _we_ win..." Leblanc reached into her back pocket and produced a white hood, covered in artificial fur, with pointy ears and some kind of pom-pom on a stalk on the forehead. "...then Artemis has to spend the entire rest of the day wearing this."

"You're on!" Athena couldn't help but groan again. It was obvious, blatantly obvious, that this had all been part of Leblanc's plan. And thanks to Artemis and her impulsive nature, they were all falling right into it.

"Great," Leblanc marched past, seemingly already triumphant. "We'll all meet back here when we're done. First one to get back with all the items wins. You'd better move quickly, assuming you're not weighed down by all that ice cream." Leblanc started to laugh, which turned into a yelp as a half eaten popsicle sailed by her head like an angry blue frozen hornet.

Athena took the liberty of getting the lists from the stall worker while Artemis was busy fuming and Orion was busy still trying to figure out what he should be doing in this situation. Leblanc and company left together, seeming to immediately defer to Lulu's expertise on the clues, despite her continued reluctance to take anything seriously.

Athena came back with papers, which she handed off to her friends. "Right, so Leblanc's clearly not smart enough to think to grab one list each, so we've got a three to one advantage on her."

"Um, actually..." Orion folded up his paper and looked back at the stalls reluctantly. "...they've still got me on the clock, so I can't really help you guys, right now."

"Oh, right," Athena said, "sorry about that."

"That's all right," Orion replied. "If anything, _I'm_ sorry."

"It's fine, you guys." Artemis scanned over the list, her free hand clenched into a fist in front of her with suitable dramatic flair. "I think I'm going to take them on fair."

"Are you sure about that?" Athena asked. "It's not like it'd be strictly one-on-one if you went alone. She's got Lulu interpreting the clues for her; that girl's on the honor roll."

"I'm sure." Artemis began scanning the town downhill, already planning out a route. "I know the town like the back of my hand. Scavenger hunts are, like, my best event."

"That's what you said about the hundred yard dash," Athena interjected.

"Also the egg toss," Orion added.

"Those, too!" Artemis put the list in her pocket and began to stretch herself out. "You guys watch; I'm going to set a world record for finding things."

Athena and Orion exchanged glances, both of them convinced she was serious and could probably make true on that promise. Athena shrugged. "Well, when you put it that way, I'm sure I'd only slow you down." She patted Artemis on the shoulder. "Go nuts, Art. We'll be waiting on the hill for you."

Artemis shook out the imaginary stiffness in her joints and took a stance, down on one knee, fingers on the ground. She got ready, set herself, and then she was off down the hill like a shot.


	3. Chapter 3

**Three**

For all the accusations thrown her way of being lackadaisical, or being scatter-brained, Artemis was at her best, was at her most focused, when she found herself at a sprint. She tore down the street, weaving around and through people as adeptly and smoothly as a gently passing breeze. She saw everything, noticed the world around her with added clarity. Her mind effortlessly told her the way to go, the shortcuts she'd found from years of exploration. This town was her track, and she was ready to run the whole length of it.

She found the old fountain in the center of town, barely slowing down to bend over and pick up one of the little marbles in the basket hidden under the lip where people normally sat, catching one in her fingers as she spun around, got back to the direction she wanted to go, and redoubling her pace.

The basket hanging from the sign in front of O'aka Mart was next on the list. There was a step-ladder prepared for the kids to get the marble from that one, but Artemis decided to take a more direct approach. She ran headlong for the wall under the sign, jumped, scrambled up the wall and jumped off, grabbing the pole and flipping herself up onto it. From there, she paused to bend over and pluck one of the red cat's eyes from the hanging basket. Then, heedless of the heads she was turning, she turned around and clambered up onto the roof, where she took advantage of the lack of walls to make a straight path for the next clue point.

The statue of Levi Ethan, the town's original founder, was, by her reckoning, about three and a half roofs away. She had to stop her forward progress for a few seconds to find a gutter to climb her way down on, but once her feet hit pavement again she was off, jumping over picnickers and juking around dating couples on walks. She was a bit thrown off for a second when she got to the statue, but only because, in her flow, she naturally assumed that the basket would have to be gotten to by climbing the statue in some way. However, when she ran a complete lap around the harpoon toting old man, she could find no basket hanging from it. Pausing to a light jog, she tried to think it out, and then, on an inkling, she looked down. There, nestled behind the plaque commemorating Levi, the basket had been carefully hidden to require a moment's look. She grabbed a blue marbled one and was on her way.

She paused at a street corner to catch her breath and re-check her list. She was already making plans, figuring out routes, taking a moment to remind herself that there was no way she was going to let that stuffed up little... but then, she heard something, coming from below her. Whimpering? It wasn't crying, per se; it sounded like somebody trying to get somebody's attention, but were preoccupied with not making a lot of noise. Artemis's brow furrowed when she realized how very... young the voice sounded. As she wandered into the dark of an alley, she could start to make out the word that was being repeated. "Guilty...? Guilty... Gui..."

The voice stopped as Artemis approached. There, down at the bottom of an open manhole, a little grey sweater lay huddled in a ball, arms flopped over its hood, shivering.

Artemis got closer, climbing down the ladder and squatting down beside it. "Hey, there," Artemis tried to say. The sweater muttered something in response; she couldn't have been much older than six or seven, from the sound of her voice. Artemis tried again. "What are you doing?"

The hood of the sweater moved up. Artemis could see the barest hint of a chin hidden under all that fabric. "T-trying to call Guilty," the little girl said, in a voice that was barely audible.

"Who's Guilty?"

"Guilty keeps the monsters away." The sweater curled back up. "The monsters hide in the darkness."

"The monsters?" Artemis took a look into the inky black shadows on either side of the waterway. "I don't see any monsters."

"They're hiding," the little girl insisted. "The monsters are made of shadows. They wait until it's dark out, and then they get you. Guilty keeps them away."

Artemis felt a twinge of sympathy. Her first instinct had been to just pick the little girl up and get her safely out, but when confronted with a child's fear of the dark... she reached into her pocket, pulling out her phone. "Hey, we don't need Guilty," she said. "I know how to make sure the monsters go away."

The little girl looked up some more; Artemis could make out a mouth and the bottom of a nose. Encouraged, she pressed a few buttons, and instantly a light on the back of her phone lit up, illuminating the opposite wall and brightening the tunnel in its entirety just enough to see by for a distance.

"See?" She swiped the light left, and then right, illuminating the whole passageway. "No monsters. That's the thing about darkness. Sure, it can seem scary, but once you put just a little bit of light to it, it goes away." She handed the phone over to the little girl. "Why don't you hold on to this for a second, while I help you get out of here?"

"Um..." the girl hesitated for a second, before grabbing the phone with two sweater sleeves, awkwardly fumbling with it for a second before she managed to get a good grip.

Artemis smiled, warmly. "There we go. Hey, what's your name?"

The girl looked up some more, to the point where she'd probably be making eye contact if that hood weren't in the way. "Clemmy."

"Well, Clemmy, I'm Artemis." With that, Artemis grabbed Clemmy up, beginning the awkward, one-handed climb up the ladder while she balanced the little girl on her hip.

What followed was a couple of hours of searching around, asking passerby if they'd seen anyone looking for a little girl. Clemmy seemed relatively tight-lipped about where her parents lived, or even what they looked like. Eventually, when she'd made a circuit of the surrounding blocks, she found an arresting sight where she'd started her search. From out of the alley came a black trench coat, its face completely obscured by shadows.

Clemmy's hand tightened in Artemis's. Artemis looked down at the little girl. "What is it? Do you recognize that guy?"

"There you are," the cloak said, in a deep, unmistakeably masculine voice. "I've been looking everywhere for you, little girl."

Clemmy seemed to hesitate, before breaking her grip on Artemis's hand and running over to the cloaked man, who immediately scooped her up in his arms. Artemis couldn't help but smile, despite the lingering sense of oddness about the situation. "So," she said, "you must be Clemmy's dad."

"Oh, yes." The man pulled back the hood of his cloak, revealing a handsome, angular face with a long black ponytail and a beard trimmed to a fine point. "I can't thank you enough for making sure she was okay; she's always been a little explorer, haven't you, little missy?"

A sense of pride began to further override her apprehension. "It was no trouble at all," she said, making an attempt at modesty. "Just helping out someone in need."

The man smiled in warm approval. "The world needs more people like you, for certain." He turned his attention to his daughter. "Well, Clemmy? Are you ready to go home?"

Clemmy nodded, reaching over to Artemis and holding the phone out.

"Oh, right." Artemis walked over to take it back. "Thanks, I nearly forgot... about..."

The cloaked man was a fair sight taller than Artemis, and at this angle she could finally see Clemmy's face. More specifically, she could see her eyes. They were grey, like polished steel, and as much as her mind fought the initial assumption, Artemis couldn't help but feel like something was incredibly off. Clemmy's face was a believable enough mask of childish sincerity, in a muted and subtle kind of way. However, behind the eyes, Artemis saw... nothing. Nothing at all. She had never in her life seen a dead body, but if she had, she would later imagine that that was what their eyes might look like.

"Is something wrong?" the girl's father asked.

Artemis flinched, quickly pulling herself together and clearing her throat. "Uh, no. No, nothing at all. I just..." she laughed, put on a show of self depreciation. "...you know, had a bit of a brain-fart."

"Hmmph," the father grunted.

"Lapse. Brain... brain lapse, sir." Artemis scratched the back of her head awkwardly. "Just letting my imagination run away with me, is all."

If the cloaked man was in any way offended by Artemis's crude language, he didn't seem to show it for very long. Instead, he adjusted his daughter on his side, letting her drape her sleeves around his neck and nestle in, and turned to head back down the alley. "Happy Longday, young lady," he called back to Artemis, and then he said something that she could have sworn sounded like "Enjoy it while you can."

Artemis stood there for a moment longer, indecisive. She was sure, absolutely sure, that she had imagined all of that, just now. She had no idea why she would imagine it, but she did. She _had_ to. What else could possibly explain what she saw? She shifted her weight on one foot, torn between following and staying put. Finally, conscience won out over insanity. She marched in, turning the corner where the two had gone. "Sir? Sir, if I could ju..."

She stopped. Partly because she realized she had nowhere to go. Down this particular corner was nothing but a brick wall, the back of a building on the opposite street. The cloaked man and the little girl were nowhere to be found. Artemis could only stand wide-eyed as she tried to figure out what any of this meant, how much of this she would have had to imagine...

A buzzing in her hand shocked her back to reality. Her phone was lighting up. There was a message on screen from Athena: _Where r u? Leblanc's already here._

Artemis huffed, stuffing the phone in her pocket. "Well... farts."


	4. Chapter 4

**Four**

"It's okay. It doesn't look _that_ bad."

Artemis could still hear the derisive laughter as Leblanc finally went on to find something else to entertain herself. Her face was burning, and very little of that had to do with the sun and the fabric wrapped around her head. Her new red pom-pom waved in the breeze, helped along by her fists trembling in frustration.

Athena folded her arms. "Honestly," she said, "you got off light. I could think of a million worse ways for you to lose a bet."

Orion tried to be helpful, piping in with "I think it looks cute, really." The glare he got from Artemis would likely have killed someone with a lesser constitution, so he decided to not press his luck any further.

Athena put a hand on Artemis's shoulder. "Come on, Art. Let's just head down to the beach. We can go watch the sunset or something, ride out the bet there."

The three of them knew that Artemis was too prideful to even consider just taking the fluffy head-piece off, now that Leblanc was safely out of eyesight and would probably never cross paths with them again today. Artemis sighed, her tension deflating somewhat. "Sure," she said. "Might as well get a good sunset in out of this."

Horseshoe Beach was their spot, inasmuch as a public beach could be anybody's spot. It was small, and a ways off the beaten path, so it wasn't typically overcrowded compared to the stretches of beach closer to town. More importantly, it was at exactly the right facing to watch the sun go down. They found the spot that somebody at some time had arbitrarily decided was the best and stretched themselves out on the sand, facing the water, as the sky slowly began its transformation from blue to orange-pink.

Artemis curled her knees in and sighed. "Hey, guys? Sorry... for wasting Longday for you guys."

"Nah, it's fine," Athena replied, leaning back against her hands. "It's not like we were sitting around on our hands the whole time. Isn't that right, Orion?"

Orion stared over Artemis's shoulder at Athena, with a look that said he had an idea what she was doing, and wasn't wholly appreciative. "Yeah. We got to hear Nils play that new song he wrote."

"It wasn't good."

"No. No, it wasn't."

Artemis was preoccupied with staring at the ocean over her knees. Athena felt a smirk coming on, and didn't bother to suppress it. "We were also talking about stuff. You know, plans for the future and all that."

Orion shook his head, almost imperceptibly.

Athena stared at him and tilted her head in Athena's direction meaningfully.

Orion shook his head again.

Athena rolled her eyes.

Artemis looked up for a moment. "What are you guys doing?"

"Oh, nothing," Athena said, with an artificially casual air. "Nothing." She reached into her pocket and began to fish out her phone. "Hey, do you guys mind if I step away for a minute? I should probably call my dad, and let him know where I'm at."

"No, go ahead." Artemis turned her head a bit too fast, caught a glimpse of the pom-pom, and was immediately reminded that she was supposed to be in a not so good mood. "I'm not going anywhere any time soon."

"Cool." Athena spared one more glance Orion's way, in which a significant amount of information was conveyed, before she started looking for somewhere sufficiently out of earshot.

Orion made a mental note to never again admit anything to Athena, before the situation finally sunk in. He became suddenly keenly aware of the weight in his pocket. "So..." he exhaled through his nose, turned his attention to the horizon. "...days are gonna start getting shorter." Artemis didn't say anything, just grunted in the affirmative. Orion nearly stopped right then and there, but forced himself to finish his thought. "It's only a matter of time before we're back in school, and then after that..."

Artemis pulled her chin up slightly. "After that...?"

Orion shifted in the sand a bit. "Art... do you ever think we might not all be together forever?"

"What do you mean?" Artemis turned her head to look Orion in the eye. "Like... we're not going to be friends?"

"No, no nothing like that."

"What, then?"

"I mean..." Orion sighed, watching a seagull wing its way a bit out to sea. "...one day we're going to all grow up, get jobs... you know, adult stuff. And who's to say we won't have to go our separate ways, one day? Move to other towns..."

"Wait," Artemis interjected. "You're moving away? Is that what this is about?"

Orion started, waving the thought away frantically. "No, no, that's not it. Trust me, I'm not going anywhere, Art. I'm just... I've just been thinking, is all."

Artemis stared Orion down for a second. She was suddenly reminded of Clemmy, staring at the life and sincerity of expression that lay behind her friend's eyes. She pushed the thought from her head. "We're still going to be friends, right?"

"What?" Orion stumbled over the question for a second. "Y-yeah. Of course we are."

Artemis gave a little "Hmmph," before laying back and laying the back of her head in her hands. "Well, then," she said, "there's no problem, is there? It doesn't matter how far away we are from each other. Friendship isn't about where people are. It's here..." she placed a hand on her heart, "...not here." Her hand moved to encompass the beach they were sitting on.

Orion took a deep breath, steeling himself for something. "Artemis, I... um..." His words were drowned out by the sound of his heart hammering in his chest. He could only hope the reds and oranges in the sky were doing anything to mask the blush, but he was sure it wasn't doing anything. He decided to settle instead for just reaching into his pocket, pulling out a tangle of silver and steel and holding it out in Artemis's direction. "Here."

Artemis sat up and picked the object up to take a better look at it. It was a loop of silvery chain, wide enough around to fit loosely around her wrist. At regular intervals a little line of smaller and daintier chain radiated from it, a hook at the end of each to hold various keepsakes. Only one of these lines was currently occupied, and at the end of it hung a green and gold painted metal charm, shaped like something between a star and a five-petaled flower. "What is it?" Artemis asked, referring to the charm.

"It's an..." Orion stammered for a second, as he tried to remember. "It's a symbol of good luck." He produced an identical charm bracelet, with an identical charm. "They say when two people get separated from each other, they can use these to always ensure they will find each other again, no matter how far they go."

Artemis slipped the bracelet on her wrist, holding it out so the charm caught the light of the setting sun. "It's beautiful." She gave Orion a smile that, after the day she had found herself having, was long overdue. "Thanks."

Orion put his bracelet on, grinning beyond the point of self-consciousness.

The sound of Athena marching back towards them caused them both to turn. Athena stuffed her phone back in her pocket and gave them both a crooked smile. "Well, looks like somebody's in a better mood."

"Yeah," Artemis laughed. "So, is your dad okay with you staying out a bit more?"

"Yup," Athena replied. "Which is great, because now that you're feeling better, there's something I've gotta do."

"What's that?" Athena smiled a wolfish smile. She leaned in, slowly, very slowly, to the point where it took Artemis a second to register it. Artemis raised an eyebrow. "Athena? What are you...?"

Suddenly, Athena's hand came whipping up, batting at Artemis's pom-pom like a cat bats at a toy mouse. "Kupo!" Athena cried, turning around and making off down the beach at a sprint and calling back "You're it!"

Artemis yelped, feeling the cushy ball swinging around and smacking her in the temple before returning to its position in the center of her forehead. She pulled herself up to one knee, laughing with an edge of bitterness. "Oh, so it's going to be like that, then?"

Orion started to get up, stifling a giggle. "Art, be nice, all right?"

"Oh, I am being nice," Artemis insisted, as she stretched herself out for a run. "See? I'm being nice enough to give her a head start."

"Ackpth!" Orion put his hands up a half second too late to stop the spray of sand as Artemis took off full force down the beach.

Athena looked behind her to see the spray of sand and tried in vain to redouble her pace, punctuating every one of her frantic strides with "Crud, crud, crud, crud...!"


	5. Chapter 5

**Five**

 _...the longer the shadow._

Athena had gone to bed completely and utterly drained, as one often did when trying and failing to keep up with Lighthouse Point's fastest citizen. However, she was apparently not tired enough to sleep through the dreams when they happened again. When she woke, the light outside was telling her it was morning, but she only felt like she had slept for maybe an hour or two; if anything, she was even more exhausted than when she'd gone to bed. Absently, her eyes wandered over to the alarm clock.

She stared at the numbers in disbelief. It was only one or two hours later. She stared at her brightly lit room, and out on the brightly lit street. Except it wasn't the sky that was lit up; the street had been bathed in artificial light. She could hear a steady rapping noise. The door?

Athena crawled out of bed and made her way downstairs. "Dad?" Light was spilling in from the front door, blocked by the silhouette of her father currently talking something serious sounding with someone else. "Dad, what's going on?"

Athena's dad turned around; he had been sleeping, too, if his case of bed-mustache was any indication. "Athena, get your shoes on," he said, stepping up to the foot of the stairs. "There's some folks here to take you to the shelter."

"The shelter?" Athena asked. "Like, the hurricane shelter? What's happening?"

"I don't know." Athena's dad was generally mediocre at lying, particularly to his daughter. "Just get your shoes on and go with Mr. Highwind. I have to go help set up lights, but I'll be right behind you, okay?"

Athena felt like saying something, realized there wasn't anything she could think of, and simply nodded.

"Good." Athena's dad stepped forward and kissed her forehead. "Everything's going to be fine, pumpkin. I promise."

Athena went back to her room, throwing her shoes on and reaching for her phone. She thought about grabbing her red book, but decided against it, realizing she was probably not going to be doing a lot of writing in a hurricane shelter. Not when all she wanted was to just fall back into bed and sleep. She spared a glance out of the window. People were filing out down the street, agitated and confused. She noticed a handful of people carrying weapons, looking for all the world like they were ready to use them at a moment's notice. "What's happening?" she found herself muttering.

Downstairs, Mr. Highwind was waiting. Athena had always thought the grizzled old man looked more at home in an army than in a school. She also knew he hated being called "grizzled old man." The things her mind came up with when she was tired...

"Sorry for pullin' you out of bed like this," he said, "but don't worry; this'll be over soon."

"S'okay," Athena mumbled. "I'd just like to know what 'this' even is."

"Now, don't you worry about that one bit," Mr. Highwind insisted. "Let's just get you safe. Come on."

Athena was led outside, where she was forced to squint at the battery of floodlights that positively soaked the street in bleaching light. She shielded her eyes with one hand as she fell in line behind Mr. Highwind and the rest of the crowd. She was struck with the craziest notion, about a half a dozen steps down the street: it's like they turned on a bunch of big night-lights, she found herself thinking. Still, it's a pretty serious case of overkill, isn't it? It's not even that dark out yet, right?

As she thought that, she found her eyes gravitating towards the few remaining spots of darkness, those areas in between buildings where the light was blocked off. She slowed down as she tried to figure out what was throwing her off. It seemed... darker. As though the darkness wasn't banished by the light, but rather shunted off into corners and pooled together. Athena half imagined she could stick her hand in the darkness of the alley and it would have substance, feel like... like water, or perhaps... honey? Something thicker than water, certainly. She looked a ways down and saw her own shadow, elongated by the lights bearing down on her.

Mr. Highwind turned and put a hand on Artemis's shoulder. "Keep moving," he said.

Artemis stared at her teacher's shadow, beside her own. Strange, she thought, when did I get taller than Mr. Highwind? Belatedly, she realized that that wasn't the case at all, but rather her shadow was slowly growing longer and taller, being pulled towards the inky darkness. Artemis could only stare blankly, mouthing an empty "What the...?"

And that's when she noticed them, in the alley. Something that burned like lights, though they clearly gave off none. Maybe two or three dozen yellow ovals, floating in the pool. Eyes? Why was Athena struck with the notion that they had to be eyes?

The next thing she was aware of was being pulled, as Mr. Highwind threw an arm around her stomach and wrenched her backwards. She saw her shadow retreat, mere inches from the alley before it suddenly snapped back to something like a normal size in front of her. And then, something emerged from the darkness, leaping in vain to try and catch her shadow before it went away.

"Shadows!" Mr. Highwind shouted. Cries of alarm and distress rang up around her.

"Shadows?" Athena struggled to stay on her feet, having finally snapped out of her tired bewilderment. "What do you mea...?"

Her question died in her throat, as she looked at the... something that had tried to catch her shadow. She had thought, from the way it pounced and the size and shape of the thing, that it was just a housecat on the hunt. But now it was looking at her, and she could see it was no cat. It was cat-sized, perhaps a bit larger, but in appearance it was rather more like a child pretending to be an animal, walking on all fours. Its body was made of the same honey-thick darkness from which it had leapt. Its hands ended in three fingered claws. From its forehead were something that might have been antennae, crooked and awkwardly bent into something like a hook. And it stared with two unblinking yellow lamps, its whole body twitching in either excitement or agitation, moving its head like a curious bird, silent and unreadable.

"What is that thing?" Athena found herself muttering.

"Move." Suddenly, Athena found herself turned around, in the opposite direction. Mr. Highwind gave her a push forward. "Move!" he said again.

Confused, she lumbered into motion. Mr. Highwind stuck behind, one eye on the alley as more of the strange creatures began to leap out into the light. "Stay in the light!" he shouted. "Follow the signs to the shelter; don't stop for anything!"

Athena saw the first sign, pointing her down the corner to the left. Straight ahead, beyond it, she could see two of the local police officers hacking away at Shadows with swords.

She dutifully cut to the left, away from the fight.

Up ahead, she could see Leblanc and Lightning. The two were shouting at each other.

"No!" Lightning growled. "We shouldn't run away! We can take them!"

"What is wrong with you?" Leblanc shrilled. "Keep running!"

Lightning skidded to a stop; Athena nearly bowled into her as she passed. The pink-haired girl held her Struggle bat aloft at the approaching mass of Shadows. "I make my stand here," she announced, with all the finality of a soldier going to war. "I won't be a slave to fear... come a-ack!" Her brave speech was cut short when Mr. Highwind came up, bent over, grabbed her by the waist, and lifted her over his shoulder without so much as a wasted stride.

Finally, the shelter was in sight. The door was being guarded by two very harried looking guards, waving in the crowd that was filing in from all sides. One of them, the young man, noticed the people being chased, and turned to the young lady. "Porom!" He gestured for her to give her something.

"Right!" The girl named Porom replied, reaching for one of the two staves on the wall and chucking it over the heads of passing civilians for the young man to catch.

The young man walked a ways down the street, letting Athena, Leblanc, and Mr. Highwind past before holding up his staff. "Sorry, guys," he said, in an obvious attempt to sound cool. "You're all not on the guest list." He held his staff up, and all of a sudden bolts of lightning began to rain from the sky, peppering the ground in haphazard scorch marks and reducing any Shadows they touched to puffs of thick smoke, which curled away as if in retreat before being burned up in the light.

"Good work, Palom," Porom shouted, as she continued to gesture for people to get inside.

Palom chuckled, tossing his staff up and balancing the end on his palm as he walked back. "Like you expected anything less."

Inside, Athena took a moment to catch her breath, leaning against the stone wall and shaking her head. "Is it over?"

"More or less," Mr. Highwind responded, grunting as he set Lightning down. "There we go..." He took a step back and bent over, hands on his knees. "Hoo, boy. It's been a while since I've had a workout like tha..."

He was interrupted by the thunk of a foam covered bat against the side of his head. Lightning made a guttural noise of indignation and stomped off.

Mr. Highwind stood up, rubbing his temple ruefully as he shouted after her. "You know, one of these days, you're going to pick a fight with something you can't win against and got no business fighting. Then you're gonna be in a heap of trouble." He sighed. "Kids, these days..."

Athena made her way to the main room of the shelter, little more than a large open area mostly occupied by cots, lit by ceiling lights that wouldn't be out of place in a school gymnasium. Some people were milling around, looking for any kind of information on what was happening. Some people had already claimed some of the cots as their own; Athena looked with a hint of envy at some of the little kids that were somehow already asleep in a place like this. She couldn't be a hundred percent sure if she was going to be getting any sleep, herself, after what had happened.

"Athena!" She heard a voice from somewhere in the crowd, and almost as soon as she managed to track down its source, Artemis appeared from behind a group of chatting adults.

"Art..." The two of them embraced, for a quick moment. "I'm glad you're okay."

"Are you all right?" Artemis asked. "You're really warm."

"I was running," Athena explained. "These things, they... ugh, it doesn't matter. I'm here, now." She sat down on the nearest cot, beginning to feel the fatigue settle in, again. "Man, this has been a really long day."

"Say, um..." Artemis seemed preoccupied; she kept one eye constantly on the faces of the people coming in. "You didn't happen to have Clemmy with your group, did you?"

"Clemmy?"

"Little girl. Like, I mean little little. Wore a big sweater?"

"Um... no, I don't think so."

"Maybe you saw her dad. Tall guy, black cloak, had a pointy beard."

"Definitely not."

"Hmm..." Artemis continued to scan the crowd, pensively. "I hope they're okay. Nobody I've asked seems to even know who they are."

"I'm sure they're fine." Athena knew, even as she said it, that neither one of them was going to believe that statement. Athena, especially. "Art, um..."

"Hmm?" Artemis grunted, distractedly.

"While you're keeping an eye out for people... my dad..."

"Oh." Artemis and Athena exchanged glances. The former nodded. "Yeah, you got it. If I run into him, I'll send him your way."

"Thanks." Athena sighed, moving to lay down on the cot. "I think I'm just gonna try and pass out for a while, wait all this out."

"It'd be nice if they shut off a couple of the lights," Artemis replied, half-heartedly, "I dunno what's going on, but it was seriously overkill, out there."

Athena shook her head, deciding against telling her friend what happened. "The brighter the light, the longer the shadow," she muttered as she rolled over to face the wall.

Artemis started, tearing her eyes away from the door and onto her friend. "Wait," she said, "what did you just say?"

Athena yawned. "I said 'good night,' you silly."

Artemis was about to question further, but in spite of all her fears to the contrary, Athena was snoring within moments of getting comfortable.


	6. Chapter 6

**Six**

The ground was moving. Rising, falling, pitching up and down unevenly. When Athena opened her eyes, it was dark. Unnaturally so. She wasn't on the cot, anymore. She winced as splinters dug into her hands, while she was pulling herself to her feet. She looked around, at the old wooden floors, the tangled web of aging rope overhead, the tattered sails pathetically trying and failing to catch a breeze that she couldn't feel, to push ahead on surf she couldn't hear.

Why is this so familiar? she asked herself, as she walked to the far end of the deck. She leaned on the gunwale, pessimistically half-expecting the rotted wood to give way under her weight, and looked out to sea. She assumed it had to be sea, out there. She had to be floating on something. She couldn't for the life of her, however, tell where the water was supposed to end and the sky began. The only clue she had that there was a horizon in this landscape of endless black were the lights from what she assumed had to be other ships, scattered about in the distance in all directions.

One of those lights, a guttering one slightly to her ship's stern, drew her attention. She strained her eyes to make out details. It was another ship, and it was... sinking? No. It was more accurate to say that the darkness was pulling it down into itself. With one last anemic surge of light, the ship was gone, with nothing but fading motes rising to the "sky" to mark its passage before those, too, faded away.

 _"Darkness can consume you."_

Athena whipped around, trying to find the source of the voice that spoke (Could one call it a voice if it gave off no sound?). Of course, she found nothing but dimly illuminated wood and rope.

A dull flash out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. She stepped around the mast to see beyond, and that's when she found the door leading to what she could only assume was the hold. She approached and tried the handle, finding it opened up to a dark and cramped staircase.

The hold was illuminated by... nothing. She expected candles or lamps or something of the sort, but nothing was there, yet Athena found that she had enough light to see by. She opened a red door across from the bottom landing, stepping into a captain's chamber that, at some point, might have been rather stately, but now suffered from the ravages of time. She stepped over fallen, mildew eaten books and tattered carpet, to the display behind the desk. On the wall, there was a display, on which at one point must have hung a trio of swords, overlapping at angles to each other. Indeed, she could see the outline where two of them had been, but now there was only one. A cutlass, surprisingly still perfectly intact in defiance of the world around it, hung facing diagonal-left on the display. Unwittingly, Athena felt her hand reaching out for it.

As soon as her fingers closed around the hilt, the ship rocked violently, with a sound not unlike cannon fire. Athena stumbled, throwing her other hand onto the desk to stabilize herself. When she turned around, she found the doorway covered in darkness, honey-thick and ominously roiling.

 _"Light holds the darkness at bay, but only for a time."_

While she was trying to process that, the cutlass blade caught a glare from somewhere, sending a bright pearl of light racing from hilt to point as she pulled it up to her face. In a move that made sense only in the world of dreams, she decided to rush forward, plunging the blade into the darkness. There was resistance, at first, but after the initial impact, she managed to lean it in without difficulty. And then, acting on yet another unfounded instinct, she turned it as though it were a key. Suddenly, the darkness began to dissipate like smoke in a sudden breeze, peppered with glittering specks of light.

 _"The brighter the light, the longer the shadows."_

Athena tensed, as the darkness fell to the floor and pooled together in a cluster of circular masses. Shadows jumped from those clusters, shaking and scraping their claws against the floorboards. One of them jumped forward, only to be cut down and reduced to smoke. And it was then that Athena was aware that her arm had moved. It took her another second to realize she was also responsible for the second and third Shadow's banishment, when she took a step back and swung twice, plucking them from the air as well.

She rushed out of the room, cutting left and then right. Her blade seemed to shift and morph, in those instants when her swing reduced it to a stretched out blur. It simmered in silvery light, as though, if she swung it fast enough, she could shake it loose from whatever illusion made it look like a common sailor's weapon. Some part of her mind accepted the challenge that implied; half of the Shadows barely had time to realize they were under attack as Athena cut an intricate series of slashes on her way down the hold. Wherever she saw those smoldering yellow embers, she cut. The sword danced in her hand, weightless, feeling as much a part of her as the arm that swung it.

At the far end of the hold, towards the bow, she found another set of stairs down. Here, the light was starting to fail.

 _"When all the lights are snuffed out..."_

She didn't even think twice. Athena rushed down the stairs at a full tilt, looking for more Shadows to fight. She didn't find any. Instead, at the back, she found a large steel door. In front of that door, a black cloak stood, holding what appeared for all the world to be a giant key. Athena swung at the air, readied herself for a fight.

The cloaked figure simply stepped aside.

The door blasted open, releasing a flood of darkness that crashed into Athena's chest, blowing her back nearly to the stairs. It was cold. Athena could feel the strength being sapped from her muscles as it washed over her. She could barely make out the black cloak in the mass of rising shadows.

She could, however, make out the dozens... no, _hundreds_ of eyes that began to pour in and wash around her.

Panicked, she pulled herself to the stairs, wrenching herself free from the countless shadowy hands that tried to pull her back in. She took the stairs three at a time and scrambled back to above deck.

 _"...when all the worlds are swallowed by endless night..."_

The ship was a cacophony of cracking splinters and snapping ropes. Athena ran straight to the prow of the ship, hoping to find somewhere to go, some island to swim to.

When she got to the edge, her eyes widened. Arranged in front of her, right in their path, were ships. Countless ships. Every single one of them cracked and broken, half sunk into the inky blackness, every single one bleached and grayed. A ship graveyard, and they were headed right for it.

She flinched at something behind her, whipping around just in time to see the cloaked figure raising a hand at her. The next thing she was aware of was being launched, over the gunwale and into the water, where she fell with so little resistance, it was as if it was welcoming her down. Athena shouted, barely registering that she could still breathe, and at this point barely caring. She thrashed, swinging blindly at the eyes that circled around her, trying in vain to keep them away as she fell further and further down.

 _"...then all shall return to darkness."_

Athena looked up at the surface, as something fell in after her. A shimmering outline of golden light; it appeared human, and like her it carried a sword. The half-person fell after Athena head-first, one hand stretched out.

Athena, in desperation, reached up after it.

Their hands met, closed around each other...


	7. Chapter 7

**Seven**

"...don't know what to do."

Athena was dimly aware of somebody touching her. A hand on her shoulder. Slowly, like she was pulling herself out of a thick mire, she opened her eyes and turned around. The shelter. She was back at the shelter.

"Hey." Her dad's face was smiling down at her, sunken a bit from fatigue and carrying with it the smell of salt water.

"Dad..." Athena pulled herself up and gave him a hug. Yeah, that was definitely the smell of salt water; he was still damp. "What happened?"

"Oh, it was nothing," he replied. Again, Athena couldn't help but notice that tone he took when he tried to lie to her. "I just... took a bit of a spill down at the pier. You know, trying to make sure the wharf's okay and all."

"Right." It probably didn't matter, she realized. She spared a glance around the shelter, and then she recognized there was someone else standing next to them, a middle aged lady who had been evidently caught in the middle of one of her late night exercise sessions, if her outfit was any indication.

"Oh, hi, Athena," the lady said, barely noticing the eyes on her as she continued to scan around the people in the shelter. "You don't happen to know where my daughter got to, do you?"

Athena found herself looking around, herself. "No, ma'am," she replied, "the last time I saw Artemis was before I went to sleep."

Artemis's mom barely registered the comment, making a face as she looked up and down the aisles that Athena absolutely recognized. _The family resemblance..._ Athena found herself thinking, before she told herself to focus. "She was looking for someone," she added. "A little girl named... Clemmy? She seemed dead set on making sure she was okay."

"I remember that," Artemis's mom muttered. "I don't think she ever found that girl." Her eyes widened, as she turned around to Athena's dad. "Roger, what if she...?"

"She wouldn't have left," Athena's dad interjected. "Even if she would have, the guard up front would have noticed. Now, come on..." He stood up and put an arm around her shoulder. "Let's go ask around again. We'll find her." He spared a glance back at his daughter, with a smile that was trying very hard to say "everything's going to be okay," before the two of them walked off.

Athena swung her legs over the edge of the cot and leaned on her knees pensively. It shouldn't be hard at all to find Artemis; it was usually just a matter of finding the most energetically moving shape in the crowd. Artemis's mom was probably on to something; she more than anyone would know how Artemis could get when she had something she couldn't find. Half of the reason she got so good at scavenger hunts was because she and everyone else got tired of Artemis being out for quite literally _hours,_ trying desperately to find that one thing that she couldn't interpret the clue for. One time, they found her trying to crawl under the pier, thinking that some little kid somehow managed to sneak clues among the barnacles.

She stood up and started to look around, herself. Unlike her dad, she was willing to be pessimistic about the situation. She made her way out of the main room and back to the front door.

Away from the bustle and chatter of the shelter, the antechamber was quiet. The only thing she could hear was the sound of gentle snoring. That young man, Palom, was clearly _supposed_ to be on guard duty, but the events of the night had apparently caught up with him; he was stretched out on a chair, head low... even from here, Athena could see a hint of slobber. Absently, she took a look back, in the window of the shelter door. The man's sister was in the main room, distracted with a little kid complaining of a stomach ache.

Athena's expression hardened as she looked back to the front door. It was unlocked. More than that, it was slightly ajar. She slipped over to it, one eye on the sleeping guard even though he appeared to be too wrapped up in a nice dream to be bothering with waking up. She craned her head through the door, to take a look outside. The lights outside still hummed with energy, the shadows still strangely thick in the recesses.

Athena noticed something out of the corner of her eye, wedged into the door-jamb. She picked at it absently. It was some kind of fabric, pulled from a sweater. The kind of sweater Artemis liked to keep tied around her waist. It was even the same color.

Athena didn't really know what she was thinking. She probably should have turned back and told her dad. In retrospect, that was probably the best option. It certainly didn't make sense to do what she did, slipping through the door completely and rushing out into the street after her friend. Acting on instinct, running off in a random direction without thinking, spurred on by sentiment... Athena could only laugh at herself afterwards. When did she turn into Artemis?

After a few blocks, it was blatantly obvious she had no idea where to look. Lighthouse Point was kind of a big place, after all, and unlike her friend, she had never really taken the time to hone some crazy hunting instinct. She could not even begin to think where Artemis could have gone and, knowing her, she was probably not going to be where she was for any length of time, anyway. This was a stupid idea. A really stupid idea.

She turned the corner, and then stopped in her tracks. Shadows... those little creatures were gathered on the road ahead, all huddled over something. She strained her eyes to try and make out what it was they were so interested in.

And that's when she saw the helmet of the guard they were on top of.

She could only watch in horror as plumes of dark smoke began to rise from the mass. She caught a momentary glimpse of the man, when the Shadows all broke away, before he was consumed by tendrils of darkness, which wrapped around him and squeezed his body down until he was little larger than a house-cat. And then he rose, although it was probably more accurate to say that some phantom force _lifted_ him meticulously to his feet while he jittered and trembled, his body twisting and warping until he, too, became a Shadow.

Athena tried to stifle a noise of terror that tried to worm its way out of her throat. She failed when she realized that now the Shadows were staring directly at _her._ Desperately, she looked around for something, anything, she could use. She found a sword, discarded on the cobblestones. She buried the realization that there had been _two_ guards walking around here, bending over and picking the sword up.

She nearly stumbled as she brought it in front of her. The thing was sized for an adult; she had to hold it in two hands, and even then the weight felt awkward and unwieldy. She brought it down heavily on the first Shadow that tried to approach, but missed. No, wait, she didn't miss. The sword was directly on the creature, but it didn't seem to faze it one bit. The Shadow had gone flat, melded into the stone like... like... well, like something's shadow. She backpedaled furiously as the creature began to scuttle around frantically like a spider along the ground.

A second one was approaching, at a lopsided run. She barely managed to get the sword going in a proper swing in time to catch the creature on the chin. She had the notion that it should have burst into a puff of smoke, but it didn't. It was knocked off course, certainly, but if it n any way was hurt by a blade digging into its skin, it didn't show it for a second.

All of a sudden, she was aware of something on her leg. The Shadow from before had pulled itself up off the ground and was wrapped around her. And then another one popped up from the cobblestones to grab her other leg. "No!" she shouted, pulling desperately and swinging again to try and ward off the rest. "Get off!" She took one hand off her sword, brought it back into a fist, and punched down as hard as she could on one of them. That was enough to dislodge it, but right at that moment another Shadow had taken a leap at her. She barely managed to avoid a scratch from those mangled claws, but the force of the shadowy body crashing into her still managed to wrench her back, and with one Shadow still holding her leg, she fell to the ground.

The Shadows, sensing their chance, all took a leap at her. Athena held up her hands in an attempt to shield her body... but the blow didn't come. Instead, she felt something rush over her body from the opposite side, heard a bizarre cacophony of shimmers and pops and then... silence. She ventured a peek past her arms.

Someone was standing over her, facing away. She recognized the long red hair, the sweater tied around the waist, the oversized pastel shirt. What she didn't recognize was the thing in her hand, which she held behind her back. It was a long bar, solid gold with vague emerald filligree all along, with a hilt and an ornate shape sticking perpendicularly off the end.

Athena found herself thinking that her friend Artemis was carrying a giant key of some kind.


End file.
